In this week’s box:
Summer Squash and Zucchini
Cucumber (first of the season…more to come!)
Tomato (first of the season…lots more to come!)
Candy Onions
Scallions
Garlic
Red and Green Leaf Lettuce
Bell Peppers (first of the season…more to come!)
Jalapeño Pepper (short, green pepper)
Hungarian Hot Wax Pepper (long, pale yellow mild hot pepper)
Fruit share: blueberries from Berryhill in Xenia, blackberries coming soon!
Farm Notes
We are often asked what we do during the winter. And we always tell people that we catch up on all the office work and farm and vehicle maintenance that doesn’t stand a chance of getting done during the season. Another task that always gets done in January or February is making up the seeding chart. We have every week mapped out with what seeds need to be started in the greenhouse that week. This way we have one less thing to think about during the crazy days of the summer.
When we printed out the seeding chart for last week we were a bit surprised to see that we are already doing our first round of fall brassica seeding! I have to admit that we went back and double checked with previous year’s records to confirm that we actually wanted to start them. Sure enough it was time to begin preparing for fall veggies.
Speaking of fall veggies we are also transplanting winter squash into the field this week. We start the winter squash crop late in order to avoid the first generation of the squash vine borer which can destroy an entire planting of squash and for which there really isn’t an organic control. When we plant out the squash we cover it with row cover and by the time the squash is established and the row cover needs to be removed the threat of the vine borer is generally past. So, even though we know that this is the time that we want to plant our squash we still don’t like planting when it is this hot and sunny, but we’ll keep water on it and all should be fine!
Recipes